Sunday 9th December 2007

Another litter raised by the lovely Suki - this time with some assistance from her beautiful daughter Kiki.  Actually, it was Suki who played a great part in assisting her daughter raising her first kitten.  The babies have done well.  They were taken to the vet yesterday for the final part of their vaccination course and general health check.  They behaved so well - very brave children.   All the kittens were given a thorough examination and passed with flying colours.  I weighed them this morning and over the past four weeks, their weights look like this:

Today the kittens’ weights are:

Bryn	1.98 kg
Luciano	1.75 kg
Truffles	1.70 kg
Placido	1.65 kg
Jose	1.62 kg
Kiri	1.45 kg

These two litters have been a very traumatic time for me at the beginning.  Kiki lost most of her litter - three were stillborn, one survived for three days then left us, and only Truffles survived.  Suki lost one kitten right at the beginning.  Losing any kittens is a very sad thing and I have to say it does not get any easier just because you have seen stillborn or dying kittens before. 

However, on the positive side - Suki raised five lovely big strong babies and Kiki went on to look after Truffles until she was about eight weeks old, then decided enough was enough and let Grandma Suki do the rest.    Both queens have done well on the whole and are already beginning to put weight back on and regain their strength once more. 

After this week is over, no more kitten pictures from the Boberg household for the time being but I shall continue to post on here and perhaps post some pictures of these children once they have settled into their new homes.  I have been very fortunate with the families/people who have adopted Boberg kittens.  They have been kind enough to post me pictures of the kittens as they grow up and play in their new homes.  This is the kind of feedback I really like.  I never lose interest in any of my kittens so if you have a kitten and want to raise a question please feel free to contact me.

Kiki was calling last week and Suki is calling this week.  Nevertheless they will not be ready for another honeymoon until spring 2008.  I shall keep everyone posted. 

I hope you like the pictures taken recently - here they are - I love them all in spite of the poor photography.

Truffles	Bryn & Placido	Suki's Litter	Jose & Kiri
Truffles	Sleepy Bryn	Jose

Saturday 17th November 2007

Today was a big day for all the kittens.  It was their very first day out of the house, albeit in a carrier and straight into the car to go to the vet for the first stage of their vaccinations.  It was easy picking them up and popping them into the carrier.  They were very good all the way there (10 minutes journey time).  The vet gave each kitten a thorough examination for the following:

Ears, eyes, mouths, teeth, skin and hair, paws and claws, tummies, breathing, heart beats, bottoms and genetalia.

As the vet examined each kitten, the vet asked me whether that kitten had shown any signs which gave me cause for concern.  In each case I said there were not serious issues except I did ask about some spots I saw on the tops of Jose’s and Bryn’s heads.  The vet told me this looked like a minor skin irritation and suggested I just leave it alone or if I must do something then use a mild saline wash.  Luciano’s testicles looked small and Placido had one visible and one not yet showing but since it is early days, the vet was not too concerned about this.

Each kittens was weighed and here are their weights from this morning:

Truffles (new owners will call her Coco)	1.27 kg
Bryn (new owners like Bryn)	1.35 kg
Kiri (new owners will confirm a name)	1.15 kg
Jose (new owners will confirm a name)	1.17 kg
Placido (new owners will call him Ang)	1.21 kg
Luciano	1.20 kg

On the whole everyone is in good health.  They were vaccinated against flu and enteritis and I bought some Panacur for worming treatment. 

Whilst at the vet, they kindly let me take some pictures.  Some kittens were better at keeping still than others so I felt the need to quickly snap a picture and then pop the kitten back so as not to prolong the anxiety.  This is my excuse about why some are not very well focussed.

Once we got home again, there was much squeeking with delight, licking and even a quick suckling session which all the blue point babies took delight in straight away.  The lilac babies seemed really cool about everything and preferred to make sure that the nursery upstairs was as they left it, nice and untidy. 

Having satisfied themselves that, yes, the toys are still strewn about the floor and the swizzle sticks are lying about waiting for games, they trotted happily downstairs to tuck into some scrambled eggs which I cooked up for them as a treat. 

All the children are very good babies when it comes to litter using.  I am currently using OKO Plus because it is made of wood chip but is fine and soft on the paws and it clumps so is easy to clean away and I have also found that it can be disposed of by flushing down the toilet.

The babies are having their mid day snooze at the moment and will be visited again this afternoon by someone hoping to see one of the other kittens who are still waiting for their new human family to come forward. 

I shall post again soon with more and hopefully better pictures on here.  Thanks for looking and do visit again - these pictures will change quite frequently.  Only one blue point boy, Luciano is available now.   However, I know of some fantastic choc and seal point babies in Surrey.  You can see their pictures on the front page under the heading “Kittens”.
                    
    
 
    
                                                     

Truffles	Truffles	Truffles	Ang
Bryn	Jose	Jose	Jose
Kiri	Kiri	Luciano	Ang
Luciano	Bryn	Kiri	Reunion after 1st vaccinations

Saturday 3rd November 2007

Kittens are all doing very well and have mastered the cat climbing trees now. They are big and strong enough to get right to the top. They can clamber up onto my bed and leap off it. They can run down and up stairs without a hitch and when they run about playing it sounds like a herd of wildebeests stampeding about the house. Sometimes they have quiet moments when they all feel like snoozing - at other times its like a hurricane of kittens. What fun! My house is now a kitten playground.

I have mentioned that the kittens are weaned. Yesterday they had a meal of a well known brand sachets of chicken flavoured meat in gravy for breakfast. They had some RC kibbles put down so that they could graze if they wanted to during the day and in the evening I cooked some chicken and diced it up nice and small so that it was easy for tiny mouths. Then for their midnight feast, I gave them some little foil tins of turkey flavour food. Sunday they had some scrambled eggs with tiny bits of salmon in it. For lunch they had some more of those foil cans. For supper they had some steamed white fish and for their second supper, later on they had some lamb flavour meat with gravy - the ones made by Purrina that come in the box of little sachets. Suki had some goatsmilk yoghurt as well. She likes this. I have tried to offer some to the babies but they don't seem that keen. The kittens get through three sachets or two tin foils or 300 grammes of cooked meat per sitting and they have four meals each day. I have not counted dried food or the times they choose to suckle when Suki allows it.

Here is a quick summary of characters that are emerging at the moment:

 

Jose - a blue point boy, the courageous explorer, gregarious and a little purr box.

Cheeky Jose

Jose & Kiri

Luciano - a blue point boy, sweet natured boy who loves mummy, turns on the purr sounds as soon as picked up.

Bryn - a big brave lilac point boy who enjoys tussles with Truffles, likes to relax in the arms and have his tummy kissed.

Placido - a sweet natured, calm blue point boy who likes to play with things and see how they work.

Truffles, Placido, & Suki

Kiri - inquisitive lilac point girl who likes to make her own way in the world. She loves being admired, stroked and have her ears kissed.

Truffles & Kiri Hold Hands

Truffles - a brave, self assured Havana girl who is very sweet natured and curious about things - she has been spoken for already and will go home to live with her aunt and uncle in Suffolk.

Truffles snoozing

Sunday 28th October 2007

I have decided to join the Kiki and Suki diaries as Kiki's daughter plays so much with Suki's children that it is practically impossible to separate them.

Truffles continues to make good and steady progress - she is now 8 weeks old and a very slim leggy girl. Her eyes are beginning to turn a lovely shade of green now. Today her new owners delighted me by visiting to see her and it was so good of them to make the long journey. They have decided to call her Coco. Truffles/Coco is well past the Kilogram mark now and I cannot get her to stay still for long enough to weigh her accurately. This will be done soon when she goes to the vet for the first part of her vaccinations in a couple of weeks' time.

Suki's babies are six and a half weeks old and spend their time chasing about the house now. They eat well, sleep a lot still but thunder about and spend more time wrestling and chasing each other. Bryn is the cool guy - now the biggest of Suki's babies and actually, he is slightly bigger than Truffles. This lilac boy is such a sweetheart - he loves his cuddles and kisses.

Luciano is a mummy's boy who adores being near to Suki and still likes the milk bar. He is in fact weaned and can give as good as he gets from his brother Bryn - he is a strong boy - but he adores his mummy still. His brother Placido is a sweet, thoughtful guy - another blue point, like Luciano but a tad lighter. Jose is the smallest of the boys and is the darkest too. He is very gregarious and likes to explore. He often punches above his weight and will take on Bryn if he chooses. Kiri is Suki's only daughter in this litter. Kiri is a lilac girl who, like Placido, prefers to consider a situation before getting involved.

All these babies are now fully toilet trained and use the litter tray reliably. I have been very lucky with them in that there have been no inappropriate weeing/toileting incidents and no tummy troubles either. It has been a tremendous help having two queens to look after them.

Here are some pictures which I took today whilst they were running about playing.

Bryn	Jose	Truffles, Bryn, Jose & Placido
			Bryn & Luciano
Truffles	Kiri and Jose relax upon Bryn		Jose, Kiri & Bryn
		Jose
Kiri, Bryn, Placido & Truffles		Three babies

Tuesday 16th October 2007

Suki’s and Kiki’s kittens seem to have been born only yesterday but in fact it is five weeks ago now.  All babies are practically weaned but they still like to go to the milk bar.  However, Suki is starting to push them off so I know that they are weaned and can survive on solid food now.  They have been good with toilet training so far and have left a regular deposit in the litter tray each morning and evening for me to clear up. 

I have not moved the enormous wardrobe under which they love to scamper in their play but I doubt if the kittens would stay there long if that were a depositing place for little jobbies.  Judging from the smell (of boring carpet and wood) and the fact that torchlight reveals nothing untoward either it appears to be clean underneath the furniture.

I have taken the liberty of removing all cushions and only allowed the kittens to have blankets which are easier to clean, whilst they are in the intermediate stage of toilet training.  This way I do not make the same mistake as with the last litter who seemed to have issues with cushions.  One poor cushion had been washed to within a millimetre of its life and in the end had to be thrown out anyhow. 

The kittens are thriving on a mixture of Royal Canin kitten crunchies, Purrina Pearl sachets and cooked meet (not all together in the same bowl).  Their favourite meat is lamb – it would be of course.  They enjoy chicken but after having this as their favourite for almost a week, they are now ready to tackle something with a stronger flavour.   

SUKI’S CHILDREN

Bryn - 720 gramme
At the moment, Bryn is now the biggest kitten.  Bryn is a lilac male who is very outgoing and affectionate.  He likes rolling on his back and letting his tummy be kissed – a confident kitten.

Jose - 685 grammes
The smallest boy, Jose is a blue point who is also very outgoing and loves to explore – he really likes being picked up and kissed but his attention span is such that he soon tires and likes to see and do things.

Kiri - 650 grammes
Little Kiri is a sweet lilac girl who likes it warm – either darting about and getting hot or snuggling by the radiator and soaking up the warm rays.  However, she is not fragile.  She doesn’t mind how much bigger Truffles is, she will still have a wrestling match with her. 

Luciano - 710 grammes
Luciano is the one who likes to be on the milk bar most.  He is also quite happy to be stroked and cuddled however when picked up, as long as you pop him on the floor soon after picking him up, he is content – he likes to feel the solid ground under his paws.

Placido - 705 grammes
Placido and Luciano are both blue point boys and they are now similar in size.  Placido doesn’t mind who he plays with.  Like his brothers, he likes exploring into nooks and crannies.

 

KIKI’S DAUGHTER

Truffles - 750 grammes
Kiki’s daughter, is becoming more leggy now and one can definitely tell the difference in age - ten days. This does not stop her having tussles with the boys or with her younger auntie Kiri.  Truffles is now nearly seven weeks old – she will be seven weeks on Friday 19th October.  She is so cheeky and independent yet so cute.  

 

All the babies are at the stage where they like to do the sideways jumping/pogo dance with tails and croquet hook shaped/arched bodies fluffed out.  The kits do this to make themselves seem bigger.  It looks very funny when there are three or four of them all engaged in this dance at the same time.

Bryn & Truffles	Jose	Kiki & little siblings	Jose & Truffles
Kiki	Bryn	Jose & Truffles	Placido & Luciano
Jose & Kiri share a meal

Suki with Babies	Truffles	Jose

Both Suki's and Kiki's kittens are all doing well so far. Kiki's daughter Truffles is already starting to eat solids and she has also started to use the litter tray. This is truly amazing since she is only five and a half weeks old. I am sure there are other breeders who will say this is normal but for Suki's and Kiki's children, this is a huge leap forward at such an age. They tend to wait until they are at least six weeks before showing much interest in weaning etc.

Still, there are still the kittens from Suki's litter to worry about and they are definitely still suckling .... well, all that is, except for Bryn. Bryn is the large lilac point male kitten. He started off being slightly smaller than his blue point brother Luciano. However, I see that now, there has been a swap round and Bryn is the bigger of the two.

Placido, another blue point male and Jose who has a slightly darker, dustier coat than his brothers, are also doing well but are slightly smaller and definitely prefer the milk bar still.

Here are a few pictures taken last Sunday, 6th October 2007. Soon I shall have to post some pictures with names under each one so that we can clearly see who is who.

As you can appreciate, over the past week or so the babies have become toddlers and are now little kids, scampering about. They have grown so well that they had to be moved into a nursery of their own to give them the space they need to exercise their limbs. Suki decided to make the move first so I let her take the lead. I set up a series of little beds and hidey holes for them to play around in and as you can see, the age difference between Kiki's daughter and Suki's children seems to be not so great now since they can all run about. The kittens are not yet weaned - Suki's are four weeks old and Kiki's daughter is five and a half weeks. They will start to wean during the end of this week.

Although this week I have not produced a growth chart, I can report that they are comparable to Suki's last litter and are as follows:

Kiri, the only female in Suki's litter, is 460grammes.
Luciano is 560 grammes already
Bryn is 554 grammes
Jose - 510 grammes
Placido - 526 grammes

Truffles - Kiki's daughter is 570 grammes now - she will soon be caught up by Luciano and Bryn who are ten days younger!!! Still, they are boys and as we know, boys love their food.

I hope to show you a small video of the kittens at play which I took during Sunday morning, 6th October.

Click Here to view the Kitten Video

Both Suki's litter and Kiki's baby are thriving. Kiki's child is actually a daughter, not a son, as I first thought when I called the baby "Joe" initially. Kiki's little one is already toddling around outside the kitten pen. Here are some pictures to show some more of the babies' progress. Perhaps these will be more informative than boring graphs ... these pictures were taken over the past ten days.

These pictures were taken on the evening of Friday 21st September 2007
Saturday morning, 22nd September 2007
Pictures taken in the evening of Sunday 24th September
These kittens are to be registered with TICA.  This is Kiki’s daughter whose registered name will be ‘Boberg Truffles Choklette’ (o dear, poor kitten)
Pictures taken in the morning of Saturday 23rd September 2007
Suki hugs one of her babies
Truffles
Pictures taken Monday morning 24th September 2007

00:15 Friday 31st August 2007

Kiki was mated between 23,24 and 25 June 2007 to Champion Advish van Diesel, affectionately known as Pickles, who is a cinnamon Oriental.    Counting from the middle day of this mating, her pregnancy lasted 69 days.  As feline pregnancies go, this is quite a long duration but according to family tradition, this is within the normal range.  Siamese can sometimes take 70 days.

Kiki carried five babies in her first litter.  Unfortunately three were stillborn.  She carried two siamese, a black oriental, a lilac oriental and a Havana or perhaps a cinnamon oriental (not quite sure yet what Truffles is but will check with the breeder who owns the stud).  Only the lilac and the brown kitten were born alive and the lilac died when it was three days old after I had tried to top it up with extra feeds.  It had a very low birth weight of only 70g, then it dropped a further 10g but did not regain weight. 

Kiki’s babies - Day 1		Kiki and babies - Day 2

After chatting about it with the breeder, we agreed that Kiki should go to a different stud in future - we believe it was an incompatible mating, possibly with too many relatives in common.  I normally check the pedigree of any stud to whom I take Kiki or Suki to make sure that there is not too much in-breeding but on this occasion my judgement was faulty. 

However, Kiki’s daughter, Truffles (this name is just for my records) is doing better now.  Her weight chart went like this:

00:15 hrs Friday 31st August 2007	Truffles was born weighing 90g
19:00 hrs Saturday 1st Sept 2007	79g
19:30 hrs Sunday 2nd Sept 2007	80g
19:30 hrs Monday 3rd Sept 2007	85g
Tues 4 Sept 2007	93g
Weds 5 Sept 2007	113g
Thurs 6 Sept 2007	126g
Friday 7 Sept 2007	145g (eyes are beginning to open now.)
Sat 8 Sept 2007	163g
Sun 9 Sept 2007	185g (eyes are properly open now.)
Mon 10 Sept 2007	195g (Joe is more mobile around the kitten pen.)
Tues 11 Sept	205g

So you can see this is not a textbook growth curve but at least she is making progress.

	Kiki and her daughter Truffles aged six days

 

 

Kitten Diary - Suki's 4th Litter

05:10-07:45 Tuesday 11 September 2007

 

Between 3rd, 4th and 5th July 2007, Suki was mated to her husband Ash, a blue point siamese, formally known as Begeswick Pinball Wizard.  This pregnancy lasted 70 days which is rather long but according to Suki’s past pregnancies it is not too far above the norm though I have to admit she did test my nerves.

Previous matings with Ash have been very successful and this year’s mating was likewise (so far).  Suki carried and gave birth to six live babies whose birth weights were 101g, 102g, 107g, 110g, 110g and 124g. Like every litter, I shall be keeping careful records of their progress.

The first week of Suki's kittens lives have been generally good for most of them but as you may see from the graph, sadly, one kitten never gained weight at all in spite of top up feeding. This kitten went to Rainbow Bridge at the age of just three days. The vet could not find a reason for this but I must assume that just because we do not know does not mean it was a perfect baby. We just don't know. Every little kitten is loved and remembered - perhaps for this one, it simply was not the right time to spend very long with us.

At the moment, all the other kittens appear to be making good progress. This litter of kittens compares well with previous matings with Suki and Ash. Here is an illustration.

Penny wrote to inform me that Sky's babies are all doing well - one of them, Breeze, had been making slow progress over a couple of days but has now put on a good amount of weight, 16 grammes, and caught up again. Sky tends to like moving her babies about but luckily, her brother Storm is very caring and woke up Penny's daughter when one of the kittens was 'forgotten' outside the kitten nest, then Storm went back and sat next to the kitten so that she could be rescued and put back in the warm kitten bed again. I hope you like the quick video of the kittens in Surrey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SC2yDT4_vA

"Sky’s babies are all doing well, growing fast (they will be 2 weeks old on the 23rd of October) and fattening up nicely. The kittens have been named and they all have a weather theme. We have 2 boys and 5 girls 7 ALL TOGETHER!!! Thunder and lightening are the boys.

	Birth	21st October
Baby	Weight	Weight
Thunder Bolt	100	304
Summer Breeze (Bree)	88	252
Snowflake	86	232
Lightening	82	246
Sunshine (Sunny)	76	226
Mistral (Misty)	70	216
Rainbow (Bow)	66	182

Things are beginning to settle down now, I have been getting up once a night to put Bow on to feed but she is doing so well now that I don’t think that I will get up tonight!

Day 6	Day 8	Day 11	Day 11
Day 13

These babies are likely to be Seal and Chocolate Point Siamese.

Zach (centre), Matthew (right) and Jasmine (left) enjoying the garden. Thanks to Ann and Trevor Field in Suffolk

It is always nice to hear news about kittens when they have arrived at their new home. Trevor and Ann did send feedback straight away. Additionally, they sent messages from time to time throughout recent months - the most recent (below) show what a lovely chap Matthew has turned out to be - a credit to his new owners.

A nice family in Surrey have recently emailed me with some happy update pictures of their kittens from Suki's second litter. Here are Storm (Kiki's brother) and Sky (Kiki's sister). Those lucky babies have an adoring family who have given their kind permission for me to show you the pictures of the kittens, who will be 9 months old on 7th October 2006.

Storm and Sky snoozing together	Storm and Sky modelling their harnesses	Penny with Storm, Sky and the family's pet rabbit, Honey

These kittens were born on 9th October. They are in Shepperton, Surrey. The kittens are likely to be seal and chocolate point siamese. The dam is Boberg Sky Blue who is the litter sister of my own queen, Boberg Thalia Kiki. The sire is Penny Bennison's lovely seal point boy, Heathlands Shady Moley.

Here are some of Suki's litter from September 2006 who have celebrated their first birthdays

Rory	Benji and Cassie	Holly

Last year's Boberg kittens, now in their new homes, celebrated their first birthdays on 13 September 2007. These pictures are shown with the kind permission of their new owners.

Boberg Jasmine, now living in Woodbridge, Suffolk with Mr and Mrs Field, her older brother Boberg Matthew (Kiki's litter sibling) and Zach, their lovely burmese.		Boberg Sage, now living in Halton, Buckinghamshire with Lyn and Rebecca Parsons.

Information for new owners

All Boberg kittens are raised indoors with love and care. They are delivered to their new homes ready toilet trained, protected by full vaccinations, wormed and will be insured for the first six weeks in their new homes. Your kitten comes with the following pack:

Registration Certificate from The International Cat Association (TICA) for each kitten Pedigree certificate showing four generations Introduction page giving details of feeding, litter, introducing your new kitten to the household and my contact details Veterinary card showing details of vaccinations and any treatment that may have been given (in the case of this particular litter it will show just the vaccinations/worming which are normal). A toy/some food/sample of litter. I may also throw in a couple of pages showing the kittens progress diaries with a chart illustrating their growth from babyhood and a few pictures.

This website is kept updated regularly - please do look in for the progress of kittens. After the baby arrives, feedback is always welcomed - I like to know how your baby/cat is finding things in his/her new home.